A blog by children's author, Heather Gallagher

5 things I didn’t know about booze

Last week I had a leave-pass to sneak out at night and do a RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) course. I trotted down to the local neighbourhood house in a bid to increase my chances of a part-time job to support my writing. Saucy Bar-maid here I come!

I thought we would learn about not serving drunks mostly (and we did) but there were a few things I didn’t know – which surprised me! In no particular order they were:

Minors (ie. you!) are allowed to have a glass of alcohol if out to dinner with your parents. Like, wow! This surprised me – but I guess if it’s okay for the French, well…

I learnt what a Jager Bomb is. No, it’s not something out of Star Wars. It’s basically where a shot glass of spirits is dropped into a pot of beer and skulled – yeuch! We then heard a very salutary story about some army personnel who drank countless Jager Bombs at a local bar, staggered out and drove to their deaths!

A standard drink is 100 mls of alcohol. Many establishments serve more than this when pouring a glass of wine – it might be 150ml or 200mls -and there you are thinking you’ve had one glass of wine when you’ve really had two or worse two, when you’ve really had four!

It is illegal to sell to a secondary supplier of alcohol. The very nice, very straight guy who sat next to me, confessed that he had once bought sweet alco drinks for and with his teenage daughter who accompanied him to the bottle shop in her school uniform. This is a huge no-no and can lead to a bottle shop being fined more than $18,000.

Licensed premises are now required by law to serve free water. Ah, when I was a lass going out clubbing in the 80s, I remember being slugged $3 for a bottle of water. You couldn’t fill your glass in the toilets because they only had hot water! The alternative? You kept drinking alcohol!

Luckily, you still shrink away from the smell of alcohol but I guess the day will come where you’ll wanna give it a try. Like all things – it’s good in moderation 🙂